Dedcline de audiência

Logo of Rede Globo since 2008, designed by Hans Donner (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Audience decline

The 2000s saw the decline of television audience in the country, as internet access grew rapidly. The daily average of TV sets turned on dropped from 65% in 1982–1991 to 42% in 2008. In the decade, the top five TV networks in the country lost altogether 4.3% of their share. SBT lost 44% of its viewership in the prime time, while Globo lost 9%. The biggest decline for Globo were in its showcase telenovelas, aired at 9 p.m., which reachead an all-time low during the decade. The network’s latest telenovela in the time slot, Viver a Vida, scored the lowest ratings of the past ten years. According to Renata Pallottin, a professor at University of São Paulo’s Art and Communication School, this happens because recent telenovelas, which has the same basic story sketches since the 1970s, has proven to be unappealing to younger audiences, who watch American television series on cable TV or surf the web instead. As such, telenovelas audience grew significantly older and richer in the past decade.

While other TV networks face the lack of interest among viewers, Rede Record, on the other hand, rose its audience by 123% in the decade, partially due to investments of over US$ 150 million per year. Although Globo maintains more than the double of Record’s average ratings, the latter has been able to surpass Globo’s audience on specific time slots, such as Sundays,and mornings. In some state capitals, such as Goiânia, Fortaleza, and Belém, for instance, Record’s Domingo Espetacular already surpasses the audience of Globo’s Fantástico. Globo also faces a decrease of its audience in Rio de Janeiro, where the network is headquartered. On December 11, 2009, Record surpassed the audience of Globo in Rio during the broadcast of The Elite Squad. Almost a year later, on December 2, 2010, Globo came on an unprecedented third place in the Greater Rio ratings in the 11 p.m.–12 a.m. time slot. On a previous occasion, Record came first in the area’s ratings from 7 a.m. to 12 a.m. on September 8, 2010.

A recent research conducted by Deloitte showed that surfing the web has surpassed watching TV as the entertainment activity preferred by most Brazilians. Other forms of entertainment, such as watching DVDs, and viewing cable TV have also increased their popularity significantly. From 2000 to 2010, the number of households with access to cable TV increased 152%, while the DVD market saw an expansion of 430% in the same period. The number of TV sets not turned on in any of the free-to-air channels—which indicates that they are being used for watching DVD or cable TV or playing videogames, also increased from 3.5% to 6.7% of the share in the decade. On 2010 it further increased to 7.7% of the share, surpassing the audience of Record. Cable TV accounted for 4.5% of this, while the remaining 3.2% accounted for watching DVD and/or playing videogames.